Help reach £25,000 to mark Lily's Rainbow Fund's first year
One year on from the heart-breaking death of their daughter, the parents of a little girl who lit up Louth are aiming to reach a landmark amount of money raised in her name.
Lily’s Rainbow Fund was set up in June last year in memory of four-year-old Lily Harley, who sadly died in March 2023 of a rare brain tumour.
Her parents John Harley and Emily Morton launched Lily’s Rainbow Fund three months on from her death in June last year, with the aim of raising £25,000 for OSCAR’S Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity.
Working with OSCAR’s, Emily and Josh are aiming to help fund support and care programs for children with brain tumours and their families, raise awareness of signs and symptoms in children, and support research into better treatments.
Now they are just a few pounds shy of their target, with their total currently standing at £24,271.37.
Emily said: “I think the first year has gone really well, when we initially set £25,000 as the target I didn’t think we’d get anywhere close to it so to be above £24k is amazing.
"I’m constantly meeting people who have heard of Lily through the fund, so it’s great to be able to talk to people about her and know her name is out there too.
"We’re lucky to live in such a supportive community, and looking forward to future events.”
One of the most popular fundraisers and ways to spread the word about Lily’s fund has been Emily has been Lily’s Pebble Project, encouraging people to take a rock or pebble painted by Josh’s grandmother and leave it for Lily somewhere special.
So far, the pebbles have raised more than £600 for the fund, with pebbles being found and left all over the world.
To take part, you can paint a pebble yourself with Lily’s name on it and take a photo of the pebble in its location, and then uploading the photo to Instagram or Facebook, tagging the fund in at https://www.instagram.com/lilysrainbowfund/ and then make a donation at www.justgiving.com/campaign/lilys-rainbow-fund
Other huge fundraisers over the past 12 months have seen Emily and a dozen others take part in a charity sky dive, which raised £8,236.83, and Lily’s Fun Day in September raised a further £4,467.
Friend Rebecca Fox is running a half marathon later this year, and has already raised £1,021.60, and Louth Community Pantomime chose the Rainbow Fund as one of their chosen charities for January’s show, raising another £1,100.
And now Emily and Josh are urging people to help break their fundraising target, either by making a donation to this vital fund in Lily’s name or doing their own fundraising.
To keep up to date with Lily’s Rainbow Fund news, visit https://www.instagram.com/lilysrainbowfund/